Ex-BBC boss defends huge payments

Seven former and current Beeb executives appeared in the House of Commons to explain who knew what about the “grossly excessive” payments.

The BBC has sparked fury by giving golden goodbyes to departing senior managers, including almost £1million for deputy director general Mark Byford, 55.

His former boss Mark Thompson, 56, denied “losing the plot” for signing off the massive deals.

Fury: Margaret Hodge [PA]

“I am not having any more lies this afternoon”

Margaret Hodge

And HR boss Lucy Adams also faced claims she had misled MPs.

She had previously denied knowing about an email setting out the redundancy deals for Byford and others.

But yesterday she apologised after it emerged she helped write it. It left chairman of the Public Accounts Committee Margaret Hodge, 69, incensed, saying: “I am not having any more lies this afternoon.”

Tory MP Stewart Jackson, 48, said evidence from Ms Adams should be taken with “a pinch of salt” while she claimed it was an honest mistake.

There is anger that almost £3m more was paid out to bosses in a staff cull to save money than they were contractually obliged to.

Ex-DG Thompson, who left to run the New York Times, defended the pay-offs while he was in charge.He also accused BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten of “unfair and untrue” claims not to have known about Byford’s payment.

But Lord Patten, 69, said: “I’m in the position in which I’m accused of having misled the committee on something I didn’t know and couldn’t have been expected to know.”